Retired Army general: Lt. Col. Lakin has 'valid point'

'He has right to discovery. Producing birth certificate is very important'

A retired Army general and national-security-policy expert says Lt. Col. Terry Lakin has “a valid point” and should use his “right to discovery” to force the Obama administration to produce proof of his natural-born-citizenship status.

In an interview with Evil Conservative Radio, Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely said, “I think many in the military – and many out of the military – question the natural-birth status of Barack Obama. … I’m not convinced that he is [a natural-born citizen].”

Vallely, CEO of Stand Up America U.S., graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and was commissioned in the Army in 1961, serving 32 years.

He said he inspected his own long-form birth certificate, and it contains a doctor’s name, date and location of birth.

“But he’s never been able to produce that,” he said of Obama. “His unwillingness to do it also concerns me. I think Lt. Col. Lakin has a valid point. … He refuses to produce a birth certificate that states the witnessing of the birth, the date and who is the doctor. We don’t know why he won’t come out with that.”

As WND reported today, the Army has filed two charges against Lakin, citing alleged violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice Articles 87 and 92.

Lakin publicly asked the president to document his eligibility and expressed a willingness to deploy with the 32nd Cavalry Regiment to Afghanistan, without response from the White House.

The filing of charges may, however, be part of the still-unrevealed strategy Lakin and his legal counselors are pursuing.

Asked whether Lakin will have a “right of discovery” during a court-martial – meaning Lakin’s legal team could compel the administration to produce proof of eligibility during the course of the government’s prosecution – Vallely replied, “Absolutely. Sure, he has a right to discovery. There’s no doubt about that. Producing a birth certificate that has all the details on it, it seems to me, is very important.”

Vallely added, “You can call witnesses. I would call the state government of Hawaii. I would require [proof of] which hospital he was born in. I’d want verification from the doctor or the nurse or whomever witnessed it that, in fact, it did happen in Hawaii. That has not been done to date. These are questions that have not been answered, and that’s what concerns many people.”

Vallely said America hasn’t seen military officers stepping forward in droves to challenge Obama’s eligibility because they know doing so might endanger their careers.

“The officer corps does not want to put itself in any kind of jeopardy because of their position and because of the fact that they don’t want to go the political route,” he said. “I don’t think you’re going to get your senior officers or senior political appointees to put themselves on the spot because they’re probably afraid that they’ll lose their position or promotion, so they’ll take no position on it. But if somebody in the lower ranks stands up, they’re going to take them on and court-martial them, or attempt to court-martial them. That’s the situation.”

Vallely expressed deep concern about what he believes is a national drift away from basic constitutional principles.

“That disturbs me more than anything, and that’s why we’ve got to stand up, because we’re getting in more trouble,” he said. “It’s like we’re watching Washington burn as Nero watched Rome. What are we doing about it?”

He added, “Only the people can solve this problem. That’s why the people must stand up and do what’s right for America because we can’t go this deviant route anymore. If not, we’re lost as a country.”

Besides Obama’s actual birth documentation, the still-concealed documentation for him includes kindergarten records, Punahou school records, Occidental College records, Columbia University records, Columbia thesis, Harvard Law School records, Harvard Law Review articles, scholarly articles from the University of Chicago, passport, medical records, his files from his years as an Illinois state senator, his Illinois State Bar Association records, any baptism records, and his adoption records.

“Where’s The Birth Certificate?” billboard helps light up the night at the Mandalay Bay resort on the Las Vegas Strip.

The “certification of live birth” posted online and widely touted as “Obama’s birth certificate” does not in any way prove he was born in Hawaii, since the same “short-form” document is easily obtainable for children not born in Hawaii. The true “long-form” birth certificate – which includes information such as the name of the birth hospital and attending physician – is the only document that can prove Obama was born in Hawaii, but to date he has not permitted its release for public or press scrutiny.

Oddly, though congressional hearings were held to determine whether Sen. John McCain was constitutionally eligible to be president as a “natural born citizen,” no controlling legal authority ever sought to verify Obama’s claim to a Hawaiian birth.